The invention relates generally to a harvesting machine, and more particularly to a self-propelled pick-up chopper for picking up and chopping corn, wilted grass, green feed and similar harvested material. Such harvesting machines frequently are used for harvesting and for comminuting various harvested material to a size suitable for use. For example, when corn is chopped after it is harvested, it is necessary to break up the grains since they are otherwise indigestible for animals as animal feed. The breaking up of the grains takes place in a conditioning device, a so-called cracker, which is arranged after the chopping device and in which the harvested material is passed between nip rollers and broken up in the process. On the other hand, when strictly green feed, such as grass, is harvested, the subsequent passage through a conditioning device after the chopping is unnecessary and would even damage the very moist harvested material by squeezing it. Generic harvesting machines can therefore be operated with and without the conditioning device.
German Patent Publication No. DE 195 38 199 C2 describes a harvesting machine which has two different ducts for transporting the harvested material after it has passed through the chopping device. One of these ducts is smooth and does not have any further processing devices, while the other passes the harvested material into and through a conditioning device. By actuating different opening flaps at the chopping device, the path through the smooth duct or through the duct associated with the conditioning device can be opened up. For this harvesting machine, it is possible to switch over between the two modes of operation very quickly and very easily. However, it is a disadvantage that the conditioning device remains in the machine, loading it with unnecessary weight even if it is not required for the harvesting operation which is being conducted. In addition, the period in which the conditioning device is not required cannot be used for performing the maintenance work on this device, which may be necessary.
German Patent Publication No. DE 196 38 033 C2 shows a generic pick-up chopper with a conditioning device which can be swiveled about a detachable drag bearing towards the front in the driving direction and, after prior removal of the chopping device, can be removed from the chopper or reinstalled. In this chopper, for converting the machine from harvesting corn to harvesting green feed, the conditioning device is removed from the machine. However, the dismantling is expensive since the chopping unit must be removed first. For stability reasons, the detachable construction of the drag bearing is also associated with structural problems and is maintenance-intensive and care-intensive.
The invention therefore relates to the problem of improving a generic harvesting machine structurally so that the installation and dismantling of the conditioning device is simplified.
In accordance with the invention, this problem is solved by a harvesting machine including a conditioning device which is connected on one side with a duct section which can be pivoted about an essentially horizontal swiveling axis and connected on the other side rigidly but detachably with a rigid region of a conveying duct. Since the conditioning device is connected detachably at one side with the pivotable duct section and at its other side with a rigid region of the conveying duct, the pivotable section of duct serves as a swivel arm for the conditioning device which is swiveled after the connection with the rigid region of the conveying duct together with the pivotable duct section has been undone. In this manner, the conditioning device can be brought into a readily accessible position in which it can be deposited and exchanged and in which it can be removed after its connection with the pivotable duct section has also been undone. The pivotable duct section, functioning as a swiveling arm enables the conditioning device to be located in a region of the machine where its removal without prior removal of other units, such as the chopping device, is possible. Since the swiveling axle is not directly at the conditioning device but rather at the pivotable duct section, the drag bearing does not have to be detachable and the above-described disadvantages associated with a detachable drag bearing are avoided.
Guiding devices for transporting the chopped harvested material after removal of the conditioning device can also be provided at the housing. Most reliably and simply, however, the conditioning device is exchanged for a smooth section of duct without exchanging processing elements. The connecting elements between the conditioning device and the pivotable duct section, on the one hand, and the rigid section of conveying duct, on the other, are therefore preferably also designed for accommodating a smooth duct section.